The abrupt announcement that LEGO would be producing a number of sets based upon the popular Overwatch video game divided opinion among LEGO fans. Some expressed excitement at the possibilities of a new theme while others queried the prospective compatibility between Overwatch and LEGO.

However, the eventual unveiling of the product range provoked considerable anticipation! 75970 Tracer vs. Widowmaker contains only 129 pieces but comes with two exceptionally popular characters from Overwatch, both of whom are exclusively available here. Furthermore, the drone is inspired by a payload vehicle in the video game so this should prove to be an excellent introduction to the theme.

Minifigures

Overwatch has been in development since 2013 and Tracer was one of the first three characters to be created for the game, alongside Widowmaker and Reaper. The energetic heroine suffers from chronal disassociation so wears a chronal accelerator on her chest, granting Tracer control over her own time. That device is printed on both sides of the torso and looks wonderful when compared with the source material.

Dual-moulded arms would have been ideal, representing Tracer's white vambraces, but this dark tan jacket looks fantastic too. The new dark brown hair piece features some lovely texture and the head is decorated with two smiling expressions as well as a pair of orange-tinted goggles. Tracer wears orange trousers with a graduated colour scheme in the video game and this shade of flame yellowish orange is not perfect, although I think it looks good.

Tracer wields twin Pulse Pistols which are constructed around a brand new gun component. These are available in white, black and pink across the entire Overwatch range and they offer surprising versatility given the impressive number of different connection points. I like the trans-light blue round tiles fitted on the sides of each pistol and Tracer also features a matching lightning bolt, representing her Blink ability.

Widowmaker appeared alongside Tracer in the first cinematic trailer for Overwatch, fighting for control of Doomfist's mighty gauntlet. The two characters have since developed a rivalry so pairing them up in this set was a fun idea and both minifigures are brilliant. Widowmaker is particularly lethal at long range so sports a metallic recon visor which looks superb and I like her purple hair style, although the ponytail should be slightly longer.

The assassin wears a dark pink and purple jumpsuit, allowing her to move around the battlefield with ease. I like the spider tattoo on Widowmaker's back and the printed design on the front of the torso is accurate to the video game. Unfortunately, this minifigure does not include dual-moulded legs but the printing on the front works nicely and I love the double-sided head, featuring a grimace on one side and a smile, with one eye closed for looking through a scope, on the other.

Almost every Overwatch character wields a unique weapon and Widowmaker's sniper rifle, known as Widow's Kiss, is particularly well known. This brick-built design is not perfect but I think it looks alright when compared with the onscreen weapon, including a scope and a red charge indicator. However, a stock should probably have been included and that is a limitation of the new pistol piece.

Moreover, the forward vertical grip is not present on this sniper rifle in Overwatch, although that is vital when posing the minifigure. You can also switch the rifle into its semi-automatic configuration by removing the scope and Widowmaker comes with a dark bluish grey grappling hook, in reference to her ability in the game.

The Completed Model

Attacking players are required to protect a Satellite Drone XR-9 while it travels across the Watchpoint: Gibraltar map in Escort mode and that payload is included here. Its futuristic shape has been faithfully replicated and I like the colour scheme of black and white with some metallic gold stripes. The model measures 14cm in length so seems to be about the same size as the vehicle from the game which is ideal for play.

Eight separate stickers are used on the Satellite Drone. They are easy to apply and match the source material very closely so their inclusion does not bother me, although smaller sets rarely come with that many stickers. The metallic gold designs on the fuselage look great and I like the pearl silver processor unit which fits into an angled 1x2x3 window frame towards the front of the craft.

Removing a pair of white 2x3 tiles from the fuselage reveals a printed control panel and a seat inside. As its name suggests, the Satellite Drone XR-9 is actually an automated vehicle but I enjoy the option of placing a minifigure at the controls, even though it looks slightly awkward without a windscreen or a canopy to protect them. Nevertheless, this is an inconspicuous feature and you can easily replace the tiles if you would prefer a more authentic design.

Two thrusters power the drone and it features a couple of stabiliser fins which are mounted on hinges at the rear. These are not integrated very tidily with the fuselage, especially when viewed from behind. The dark azure stripes around the engines are faithful to the video game though and I like the storage compartment underneath, containing a printed health pack!

A drone charging station completes the set. This is represented by a flame yellowish orange 8x8 dish and features realistic battle wear along with the letters 'WP-G' which identify its location of Watchpoint: Gibraltar. In addition, this charging station serves as a display stand for the drone and a corresponding printed element appears in 75975 Watchpoint: Gibraltar, forming the craft's eventual destination.

Overall

I have been looking forward to the Overwatch theme and am delighted to report that 75970 Tracer vs. Widowmaker certainly matches my expectations! Both characters are exceptionally popular and their minifigure incarnations look fantastic, featuring impressive printed detail as well as some new pieces. The pistol component could prove particularly useful given its plethora of attachment points.

The drone is less exciting but looks marvellous when compared with the video game and it serves an integral role for play. Additionally, the price of £12.99 or $14.99 seems reasonable in my opinion so this set should appeal to both seasoned Overwatch players and those who are seeking a smaller set which gives a taste of the broader Overwatch theme.

I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your thoughts on the set in the comments below.

This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review is an expression of my own opinions.

Oh joy. Now kids can reinact killing each other in this riveting set, complete with guns and hooks. Don’t try to tell me those guns are for kids to reinact creative stories full of peace and friendship. Oh LEGO. Why have you failed us??

That aside. The set also just looks terrible. Not even worth anybody’s time.

Lego has had guns in it’s sets forever. The idea that Lego won’t make war childsplay has kinda been thrown out with Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Ninjago. I suppose an argument could be made that each of these is technically in some way not “war”, (or, with the case of Star Wars, not realistic war) but any foray into that seems disingenuous. However, of all the first person shooter games Lego could have picked to represent, Overwatch’s wide range of differenentiated characters seems to make the most sense to me. (Though I don’t play the game)

@ Brick Pal, Unfortunately I must agree with @Your future president, despite our previous squabbles. There is a difference between the guns of Marvel and that of Overwatch. The latter is purposed to end life for the purpose of enjoyment, as it is a shooter game, which is far from the true good vs evil in other media. I believe the futherment of the mentality of death and destruction is not healthy to a young generation. The toys which kids play with when they are young shape the future that they are to create, just like the movies they watch etc. It's just the demoralizing of our culture. That is the plain and simple of it.

Edit: @ Brickpal Say what you will about the story, but the truth is that it is a shooter game. Can you deny that? Someone will find a way to. And despite a good backstory or whatnot, the purpose to pick up the controller is to remove the life from the opposing force, wheter "good" or "bad" a life is still a life.

I can admit that the set is rather neat, though whatever the backstory

^^ If you know anything about Overwatch’s lore, which the sets are heavily inspired by, it is totally a good vs. evil scenario - there is a war beforehand (known as the Omnic Crisis), but it does not factor into the present day plot these sets depict. Overwatch are the good guys, Talon’s the bad guys. It’s good vs. evil, end of story.

Other LEGO themes have used guns before, sometimes in even more violent scenarios. Heck, Indiana Jones featured Nazis. I didn’t see anyone complain then.

I also think a Pixar-esque, T-rated video game like this is more appropriate than a PG-13 80s movie for a LEGO theme, for what it’s worth. Overwatch doesn’t even have any crude language, and it’s much less realistic than these movies as well as other shooter games of its kind.

Also, something tells me this is the same person as Your Future President, but on a different account; going by the name. But that’s just me. Not clever...

i dont get the complaint with shooters, if they were making battlefield or cod lego sets i'd understand a bit of backlash. but overwatch is hardly some kind of 18+ violent shooter. if starwars can get literal torture machines adapted into lego, i'd say overwatch won't have any issues with it's cartoony looks and over the top action.

Good review! With regard to Widowmaker's rifle, is it possible that the actual grip of the pistol element might be meant to represent the stock, whereas the bar protruding down further along the length of the rifle is meant to represent the grip? Looking at a lot of pictures of the Widow's Kiss on Google images, it seems plausible that the set designers might have intended that and simply failed to communicate it to the packaging designers who created the box art.

The designers did a good job choosing a decorated slope for the "controls", because even if you want to treat it like an automated drone as it is in the official game and story, the decoration in question could be just as plausibly interpreted as a diagnostics panel for whoever's in charge of servicing the drone.

@Your future president: I mean, the guns here are no more realistic than the ones in Star Wars or Exo-Force sets, and decidedly LESS realistic than the ones in The Lone Ranger, Indiana Jones, Wild West, or Pirates sets. Why would you expect kids to play with this set any differently than those ones? It's not as though the pirates and soldiers in LEGO Pirates sets or the cavalry and bandits in LEGO Western sets were ever in any way implied to be friends or pacifists.

@Lego Armys: I don't think it's so disingenuous. I think there's a definite difference in presenting imaginary, unrealistic violent conflicts as a play scenario for kids and doing the same with conflicts resembling ones that real people died in.

The main point is not to prevent or discourage kids from telling stories featuring simulated violence (which many kids have been doing one way or the other for as long as the LEGO brand existed), but to avoid equating that kind of low-stakes "play-fighting" with the grim seriousness and tragedy inherent to the real-life, present-day warfare and lethal violence kids are inevitably going to learn about at some point in their lives.

@Your Future World Leader: I don't know that it's fair to put a shooter like Overwatch in the same boat as a more realistic one like Call of Duty or one with more military fetishism like Halo. In several of the game modes in Overwatch you simply respawn when your character is defeated, same as in a more kid-friendly game like Splatoon, Minecraft, or most of the LEGO video games. "Deaths" in Overwatch are also not usually not particularly graphic or visceral, even compared to some Mario or Zelda games in which some death animations (even non-violent ones like death by drowning) can be downright frightening.

In the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't be surprised if McCree smoking a cigar in the game were just as big a factor in its T rating from the ESRB as any of the actual conflict scenarios, since I know smoking is a big no-no for most kids' TV shows in the United States.

@TheBrickPal: People DEFINITELY complained about the Nazi soldiers in the LEGO Indiana Jones sets and games, even if it wasn't a big deal for the AFOL community as a whole. I think with about anything LEGO does, if somebody COULD be expected to complain about it, then you can probably safely assume that at least a few people have.

The set looks pretty decent, although I do agree that Tracer's legs don't look great.

I absolutely agree with what @Aanchir said. I'd also like to add that whether or not Lego makes this line won't change the fact that most kids are already playing these types of games (*cough* fortnite *cough*). In fact, since Lego is likely losing profits because of video games, I'd say this line is a good call.

@ LuvKernowFirst off, please review the "New parts for 2019!" article's comments section where I make my dislike for (not my) Your future world leader's name. I still believe it was in some way a copy off of mine and am calling him (or her as the case might be) out on it to change the name that has cause this great misconception, as my username was first (shown by the date on when he created his account). Also, if you can see from the above comments, I said I did not care for the set, whilst the other entity approved of it.There are several Brickseters with similar names i.e. Aanchir and Linchir.

Maybe I'm the crazy one here, but I don't think even Halo is that violent on the video game spectrum, especially since the franchise shifted to a long overdue T-rating. It's still not a great fit for the Lego brand in the same way Overwatch and Minecraft are, but Halo is something I am totally okay with teenagers playing, (and I think the Halo Wars spinoff series is something I'm comfortable with kids playing). I'd dare say Halo is less violent than say the Arkham Asylum series or The Dark Knight trilogy, and we have been getting Lego Batman for many years now! Heck, Lego has even made some Deadpool figures.

COD though I wouldn't ever want Lego to touch even with a 20, no 50 foot pole. I still remember that feeling of shock of playing COD Modern Warfare II and III and witnessing the over the top gore and violence. COD earned that M rating ten times over.

Heck, for as much as I love Skyrim; I think its "beheading" mechanic is a bit violent for my tastes (sure though, LOTR had some beheadings though and we had a nice Lego theme from that...)

If I were to pick 'the next' Lego video game license, I wouldn't be shocked if we get some more Blizzard licenses. Probably Warcraft if I had to pick one. While I'd eyeroll hard if it was announced, Fortnite wouldn't be surprising either since every 10 year old and their dog is playing it. Personally I'd want Lego to take on something like Kerbal Space Program, but that game doesn't have the big enough fanbase to support a full on Lego theme.

I suppose @YourFuturePresident also has a problem with Harry Potter... in the grand scheme of things, Overwatch is pretty mild in comparison to the likes of HP, SW, and LotR, the first containing heavy adult undertones and metaphors (dementors being depression and Lupin being inspired by an outcast with HIV) while the latter two are almost entirely about war.

Also, the ratings scale is somewhat odd in some ways. I try to keep everything on my website where I write serials to a PG-13/TV-14 rating scale but sometimes it is hard. Also, here is the link, because promotion. www.thetwilightsloan.wordpress.com

Love how once Overwatch was obtained, some people suddenly turned into Puritans here. Lego has released the DEATH Star how many times now? Guess blowing up planets full of people isn’t as gruesome and terribly mature as the time traveler and purple skinned woman fighting with their ray guns...

While we’re on the topic, let’s ban Harry Potter. The magic spells that kill children are too impressionable and might corrupt our youth. Adventure Time is a post apocalyptic story about a boy who loses his arm and tries to slay a demon with his swords, so that’s gone too. And don’t even get me started on Friends! None of those cars the girls drive have seat belts!

In fact, minifigure as a whole just need banned! How can we find it acceptable that Lego is advertising mutilation? Kids are going to think it’s okay to swap heads and legs with each other. The horror!

^^^ Oh yes, because I (and those of my same thought pattern) are suggesting to outlaw every form of creativity from the world and make it a dreary dull existence. NO! I am just suggesting to consider what we are exposing our kids to and to rethink our strategy. I am not even condemning you for buying these sets. I am "sharing my thoughts on this article." All my comments are purposed to do are to make you think critically in an unbiased fashion. Whether you choose to do so is entirely up to you.

Oh, the tears from both "Your future something" are so tasty! Let them whine more!

I loved this set. Simple, cheap and with two characters that display some rivalry. I just don't think this totally black rendition of Widow's Kiss is faithful enough to game rifle. I might remove the secondary grip, if possible because it's useless and ugly. Then again, is quite hard to build a dual handed gun in Lego form. Oh, and Widowmaker arms should have the same skin tone from her face/body.

A neat set, though not one I'm interested in. I still feel that Widowmaker's outfit isn't really something kids should be looking at. The fact that the game is a shooter means nothing to me. It's just like Marvel. Really looking forward to Reinhardt.

As a kid, everything involving Lego and war I could find, I played with. I liked war a lot as a kid, and the first chance I got to purchase the realistic weapons of brickarms when I was older, I used. What I find disingenuous, is the Lego company using Ole Kirk Kristianson’s ideal of not making war childsplay as an excuse to stay away from themes involving war, yet having almost every theme they sell involve conflict of some sort, usually with weapons, (either guns or swords) with implied violence throughout. There are real tragedies, and real wars that I would understand a parent not wanting their kid exposed to. As a kid, I used Legos to imitate those real wars, though I didn’t understand the tragedy of war, it was fun to me. As an adult, though I better understand the tragedy of war, I still use Legos to imitate war. I separate the tragedy of war with the fun of Lego minifigures shooting at each other, and further on, with the fun of playing first person shooter video games that are also meant to imitate such things. I understand war is separate from those things.

I understand @yourfuturepresident opinion, but to not mention every other LEGO set that includes a weapon of some sort is kinda of hypocritical, because any set with a weapon of some sort(guns swords etc), was put in there so the buyer can reinact a fake battle where the opponents kill each other Great review capnrex101

@Fauch: I think there's a big difference between pointing out rare or infrequent exceptions in a purported anti-gun or anti-killing stance to try and prove no such rule exists, and pointing out that there's basically never been a time when themes often taken for granted as "normal" LEGO themes like Space, Pirates, and Castle DIDN'T have guns or weapons.

@xboxtravis7992: I mean, in terms of sheer level of violence it's fair to say Halo isn't too heavy on content like gore or realistic weaponry, though its violence can be somewhat graphic at times. I think the bigger issue with Halo is the way it fetishizes the idea of going to war with guns blazing, and a lot of the conflict in its storyline is motivated on pretty much all sides by aggression and survival instinct rather than any differences in motivations or moral values. In Overwatch, the characters (even the one with "Soldier" in his name) are framed more as superheroes than soldiers, and are given backstories to give them reasons for why they find themselves on opposing sides.

Granted, this doesn't factor into the competitive gameplay in either game any more than it does in Mario Kart, because competitive multiplayer games tend to be framed purely as a game/sport, in which your actions are motivated by the game's win conditions rather than the moral values and motivations of the players or characters.

As someone who doesn't know Overwatch from Pac-man, I find this set a little bland. This doesn't excite or intrigue me at all (and all those stickers is an instant "no"). I'm sure there are going to be other really nifty Overwatch, but this one's an easy pass.

I agree with those saying Overwatch isn't a great fit for Lego. Overwatch is a violent game, with violence at its core. It may be stylized, it may have "good and evil" (though that's kind of a silly argument when you have good guys and bad guys side by side on the same team), but at its core, Overwatch is a game about killing the other team. It doesn't just have some violence--the game -is- violence.

Contrast this to Star Wars which also has some violence, but also heroes who are trying to do the right thing, working toward a common good. Many situations in Star Wars are actually solved through cleverness or running. And when someone dies (ok, someone other than a faceless mook), that loss is felt on a deep level by the characters--and the viewer. Overwatch is definitely several steps removed from previous Lego themes in terms of violence. I say this as a kid who grew up in the 80's (and so am well-versed in tv violence) and as an adult who's played a decent amount of Overwatch. Overwatch is a fun game, but it's not something I'd remotely consider showing my kids, not until they were teenagers. Star Wars I'm maybe a year away from watching with my oldest, who will be 7 soon. The thing is, most teenagers who are playing games like Overwatch are typically entering their dark ages in terms of Lego, so I'm not entirely sure just who these sets are aimed at.

How is this even an argument? Please consider this, is it wrong for LEGO to release sets that appeal to teens? Before you lecture me on the age suggestions consider this as well, when a kid who's never played Overwatch before buys, or receives an Overwatch set, does he know Overwatch is a video game about violence and death, though it really isn't. Certainly not! When a teen goes to the store who's actually played the game and buys or receives a set from the theme, does this harm him? He's already playing or has played the game! It makes no difference. If a child is playing Overwatch then that's messed up. Overwatch is a teen rated game. It's the parent's responsibility to filter what their kid does and doesn't do.

ra226, Your future (president/world leader) - what's your opinion of Pirates? Glorifying a group whose entire MO was pillaging, stealing, raping and killing to enrich themselves? Or perhaps you identify more with the soldiers, whose job was to fortify and protect colonies that were established to steal resources and kill native populations, if necessary.

Speaking of native populations, how 'bout those Wild West themes? What's the purpose of the rifles and pistols in those?

Or the Bionicle Heroes game that got rated 'T' for teen?

Perhaps Castle is better- what more wholesome activity than large scale warfare with medieval weapons?

I love all those themes, btw (except Bioncle)- but there is no high ground to stand on here.

Regarding the guns issue. To me it's quite simple. Overwatch is the game about killing and scoring, these guns are the center-piece to achieve this, while in a movie they are means to produce bang-bangs and sparkles. It's quite cynic to produce a kit (for kidz!) in which 2 characters (one of which is a hit(wo)man) are implied to shoot each other, not to get something, not to resque someone, but simply to kill and score.

Also, noone mentioned that Tracer is like the 1st (officially stated) gay character minifigure?

Also: when will cops get weapons (at least batons)?

P.S. I'm a stalwart defender of the violence and other vile themes in videogames and other media.

P.P.S. And while I'm on the roll. About pirates, soldiers and e.t.c. I think children should be exposed to the reality. Yep, there're some scurvy dogs that pilaged, yep, there are people, who kill to keep the peace, yep, there are 7 metres of intestines and 5 litres of blood in the human being. It's the fantasy violence I don't want to push on kids – like, look: "it's ok, there's nothing wrong in shooting and hitting people – they don't even feel it or they are not real people – look, the blood is purple"! And masking real problems behind some vague stuff is just messed up.

The fact that this is a Lego set based of a video game makes me think Overwatch is the perfect theme for a Lego game to go with Lego Movie 2 next year. I personally don’t mind Lego violence as long as it is all in the name of fun, it doesn’t get into modern warfare, and most importantly that it DOESN’T GET THE IDEA OF LEGO FORTNITE. This set is a very nice looking one and this review has definitely made me interested in this theme by giving me insight for the Overwatch game. I am excited to see what is done for the next few reviews for the other sets.

I once wrote an essay for my old English class called "In Defense of Pop Culture." Violence is a theme that runs through almost everything, how realistic it is being dependent on the target group. I.e. SW and HP (while still dark) are meant for everyone to enjoy, older audiences picking up the darker undertones. Then you have things like "The Expanse" and "The Walking Dead" both clearly meant for teenagers and adults. All four of those are amazing, the difference being I'll watch the former two with my mother and the latter two when she's not around or with my dad.

People nowadays seem to get offended very easily, leading to a destruction of creativity and modern pop culture. I grew up playing the older LEGO games with my dad in our basement, games where you *gasp* kill the enemies. I turned out ok, the reasons why it's just ok and not fine are completely unrelated.

Once again going back to my writing, it is even hard as a writer to stay on everyone's goodsides in my fledgling career. I've published two serials and just started another one and I've already taken heat from all sides for not including this or by including this. There is simply no pleasing people.

Instead, we settle for a destruction of pop culture, old and new, past and what's yet to be.

I dunno, I think Halo has shied away from its early days of "gungo-ho space marines do awesome stuff" ever since the ending of Halo 3; a lot of the later installments usually tend to feel like they have more heft and sorrow to its conflicts. Then again, I didn't play through a Halo shooter all the way through until I was 17; so by then the debate if the game was age appropriate for me was mostly moot.

Also I can't really complain about the military presence in Halo in part because in real life my first paycheck was from a summer job working for the Department of Defense as a student hire on a local military base. Yes a civilian position, but for the Army's benefit all the same. I also don't really know if the military focus of Halo is that much more intense than say the stories about Clone Troopers in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (*ahem* Umbara...) . The amount of sharpee Clone Troopers and Halo dudes I saw on MOCPages back in the day seems to suggest they both appealed to the same demographic. At the end of the day, I can gripe about how politicians play off military strength and patriotism for their benefit (but that is most definitely NOT a debate for this forum), but I only hold respect for the anyone in any nation willing to volunteer for their military in defense of their people.

Maybe at the end of the day though, my opinions on video games is less shaped via the content of the game; but teenage memories of sitting around a coach with my friends with a bowl of popcorn and blasting our digital avatars to bits on splitscreens. Its hard to view it as uber-violent when the guys I am 'fighting' against are sitting right next to me and laughing about the digital nonsense we are inflicting on each other on the screen. Maybe its simply best framed by the conclusion of Ready Player One, at the end of the day "the real world is what is 'real'"...

@BooTheMightyHamster, save room for another oldun, I'll get the first round in and we can have a discussion about the yoof of today and how it was better in our day. :)

Seriously though, as Lego sets, despite knowing nothing about Overwatch these look like fun little sets that are a bit different from the norm. Nice colouration, nice parts (especially in the bigger sets) and good quality minifigures. What more could you want from a set of interlocking building bricks?

I know/knew exactly nothing about Overwatch before Lego introduced the theme, but having seen the sets, I know that they are all designed pretty well with attention to detail and to scale. To be honest, neither the character Tracer or Widowmaker mean anything to me, and the drone doesn't look very exciting, so I have no intentions of getting this set yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to buying some of the other Overwatch sets.

I have never played Overwatch nor do I know anything about the backstory.

As for violent source material being appropriate for LEGO sets, I agree with those who think it is not appropriate, but then again, so is everything from Pirates to Spacemen with ray guns.I think TLG really threw their supposed stance on non-violence out of the window when they introduced the Star Wars line, as there is loads of violence and killing in that franchise and has been from the beginning. Sales figures and cash appear to be more important than some hypocritical policy on non-violence. Kids love playing good versus bad, and that always includes neutralizing your opponent, no matter in what way.

The reality imho is, this is just a mediocre set. The craft at first seemed interesting to me when the sets were first announced, but from this review it doesn't seem very worthwhile anymore. And as those figures mean nothing to me either and would go straight to the parts bins, there is simply no redeeming feature. Perhaps the Gibraltar set will be better. At least it will be a better parts pack, plus the craft looks much more well-rounded.

@Zordboy: Off the top of my head there’s also Marceline the Vampire Queen from the LEGO Dimensions Adventure Time packs, and in a non-fictional example, Sally Ride from the LEGO Ideas Women of NASA set. Additionally, many versions of Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn are established as bisexual, and Deadpool has long been established as pansexual. Zia Rodriguez from “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and Valkyrie from “Thor: Ragnarok” were meant to be confirmed in their movie debuts as lesbian and bisexual, respectively, but the scenes confirming such were cut in each instance, so it’s debatable whether the creators’ stated intent can be considered confirmation in either of those cases.

@FowlerBricks: Honestly, I disagree on that. There are plenty of figures (licensed and non-licensed alike, male and female) that show way more skin, and honestly it’s kind of gross to think a bit of understated female cleavage is too explicit for kids to handle. It’s part of the same cultural double standard that gets girls sent home from school for “distracting” boys because of anything from wearing tight clothes to having an exposed bra strap, while boys are held to much lower standards of appropriate dress.

I fail to see the point of "your futurer (insert government position)s'" comments. Yes, the game is violent, but it's not the kind of guts-and-glory Call of Duty style where you're just indiscriminately blasting people to highly graphic bits. It is a first person shooter game, but it's perhaps one of the most tame, and seems a decent fit for LEGO.

Leave it to the grown ups to pull politics and other supposed "higher level thinking" talk into the discussion.

I'm on the side of LEGO has already crossed the dark side a long time ago with weapons. This includes LEGO's video game library.

It really boils down to parenting. Good or bad, it's up to the parent to monitor their child's exposure to such things. You can't just buy and plop your kid down with a toy or video game without some supervision and at least a partial comprehension of what you're buying and the ramifications.

A similar plight for a parent might be of sugar and candy. The world is full of the stuff on store shelves, ads, etc. As a parent do you fully restrict, fully allow without restrictions, or allow with moderation? Parenting is complicated and it's up to the parent to decide how it fits into their parenting style.

While violence has been included in previous LEGO sets with both fantasy and realistic weapons, I think the vast majority of commenters are discounting interaction and narrative. Star Wars, Marvel, Indiana Jones, HP, etc. all contain violence but they are principally story-based mediums with no element of viewer participation, and the narrative is not only 'Good vs. Evil' but all include primary characters that have non-weapon based interactions and goals. You can do plenty of fun 'Star Wars', 'Indiana Jones' and Superhero scenarios without using guns - which I very often did in playing with these as a child, just because I enjoyed playing with dialogue and other forms of peril (trap doors and monsters) than in imagined shooting... which I found incredibly boring as a kid.

In contrast, video games invite participation, and in first-person shooters, that participation is entirely upon shooting and killing. The narrative of 'Overwatch' therefore invites the usage of weapons. You pick up a first-person shooter game, you're killing something with a gun, that's your objective, no matter what the story and lore tells you. I think it's absolutely fair to see that kind of narrative is new to LEGO, who has never had a theme based upon a first-person shooter video game before.

Now, does me suggesting this case has validity mean I agree? No, in the end, I *don't* actually agree.

I think the comparisons with previous themes are illogical, but in my opinion, today's market is filled to the brim with violent weapon-based content, and the success of high-quality unofficial and (separately) bootleg LEGO-based soldiers and custom weapons, even bleeding into the primary market in some places, shows that the market is demanding more violence from LEGO, who loses not only money but brand identity to these imitations. On a similar level, 'Overwatch's fantasy-based scenarios are still a thousand times better than seeing 'Call of Duty' or 'Battlefield'-inspired sets.

So I think these 'Overwatch' sets are just fine, and I'll probably pick up this one despite my lack of interest in the game, because cool spaceships and minifigures :)

Lego is on a slippery slope here. Their non-violence policy is not that credible anymore. This theme would probably not have been acceptable 5 years ago. Maybe in another 5 years we will have Lego GTA theme.

LEGO should just be honest and release some products under a label that openly states that are towards AFOLs. The they could release some castle-based themes such as Warcraft and/or Game of Thrones! :D

@Dude45: Here is LEGO's "Conflict and Weapons Policy", formalized in 2010 (the closest thing they've ever had to a clearly spelled out non-violence policy):

"The LEGO Group believes that conflict between good and evil can form an important part of children’s play as it teaches children about their own, and other people’s, aggression and helps them recognize and handle disputes in other situations. However, the LEGO Group has no intention of glorifying war or encouraging violence, and therefore refuses to produce realistic weapons and military equipment with the risk of children recognizing these types of weapons from hostilities around the world. Instead, the LEGO Group supports children, stimulating their imagination by launching only historical and fantasy weapons."

All of the weapons in these sets can be just as accurately described as "fantasy weapons" as anything in themes like Star Wars, and a lot more accurately described that way than many of those in the Indiana Jones sets. They look more like Nerf weapons or the kinds of ray guns and other sci-fi weapons in themes like Space or Exo-Force than any kind of real world firearms, particularly those used in military settings.

Likewise, nothing in this "glorifies war" or "encourages violence" any more than Star Wars sets… unless you subscribe to the hypothesis that playing violent fantasy/sci-fi games encourages real world violent actions, which isn't credibly supported by any kind of youth violent crime statistics (in fact, if anything the increase in sales of violent video games since the 90s has been correlated with a DECREASE in violent crime committed by minors).

Also, Overwatch is an entire media franchise, even if the video game is what all the other media is based on. Several of these sets are inspired as much or more by the Overwatch story-driven media like comics and animated shorts than by the non-story-driven gameplay. As such there are ways for kids (and adults!) to relate to and understand the characters that don't involve them playing a game intended for ages 13 and up (same as how kids could enjoy the Prince of Persia sets without playing the often T-rated or higher Prince of Persia games).

@Zordboy: Well, besides Dumbledore. I agree that's a little frustrating, but for right now with LGBT rep in LEGO sets being as scarce as it is anyway, I think any further examples anywhere within that spectrum are a step forward at this point. Particularly when so far all of those confirmed gay characters are from licenses that LEGO doesn't have authorial control over… once they start including such characters in their own in-house themes then they will hopefully be able to achieve more varied representation.

I’m going to say it again, and of course, it won’t matter that I do, but why oh why, Nintendo, did you choose to partner with K’NEX for your Mario construction toys instead of the best toy company on Earth? For video game themes, I feel like Minecraft and Mario are way better suited than Overwatch.

Now, who knows, maybe LEGO didn’t want Nintendo, not the other way around. But knowing Nintendo, I suspect they had a chance to work with LEGO and blew it.

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